Tag: word of mouth

Customer reviews are more important than ever before. We have seen repeatedly how reviews can singlehandedly make or break a business. And the number of consumers who read and trust online reviews is growing. This is largely down to trust. Customers trust other customers a lot more than they trust retailers and certainly much more than ordinary advertising channels. According to statistics, 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal ones, and 90% read online reviews before visiting a business. These numbers are likely to grow even further next year. Essentially, reviews have become the number one way to sell products and services online.

Source: pixabay.com

Raising search visibility

Apart from the trust issue, which is of course essential, reviews raise your search profile. The more people reviewing products on your online store, the better. Every new review increases the unique content on your site, which improves your ranking and ultimately helps drive more traffic to your online store. Google’s algorithm favors high-quality unique content, and leveraging your customer’s thoughts and opinions is the best and most efficient way to produce a lot of this content quickly and at a low cost. As Google’s SEO algorithms continue to grow and gain sophistication they seem to place more and more weight on reviews.

It’s all about authenticity

So with so much hinging on reviews, businesses are often tempted to fake them. It’s not so hard to create a fake IP address and put out some good content that looks just like real reviews. But beware; too many excellent reviews make customers suspicious. More than anything they are basing their opinions on trust and nothing is so good that it doesn’t have criticism. A few bad reviews make your online store seem authentic and also provide opportunities for improvement. Ultimately, consumers want the “real” reviews, and this means the good the bad and the ugly.

Reviews are digital word of mouth

Word of mouth is an essential way for businesses to grow and gain customers. Even in our digital world, face-to-face word of mouth remains a strong channel of advertising. However, it is fairly unpredictable and therefore difficult to fully plan or leverage. What’s interest to note is that online reviews are essentially the digital aspect of word of mouth marketing. They have taken something personal and translated it into online mediums that are accessible by much greater numbers than face-to-face interactions.

Bringing back voice

While digital mediums are fast and simple to use, they often lose the personal element of word of mouth. However, using different mediums can help bring the personal connection back to what has largely been an anonymous and text-based world of reviewing. With new technologies and platforms such as voice and video, online reviews are taking a step forward. It is hard to ascertain credibility when all you can see is a written comment, but when a tone of voice is brought back into the equation it is much easier to tell if a review is legitimate. For this reason, voice reviews are much better at generating trust and ultimately much better at increasing conversions.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

It’s 2016 and any eCommerce business owner knows that product reviews can make or break businesses. Customers are increasingly turning towards online reviews as a resource to seriously research and evaluate the products they are interested in before committing to buy. A 5 star review brings consumers flocking and a series of 1 star reviews is a major red flag.

And of course, the review system isn’t just relevant for products; service owners can be just as easily influenced by crowd opinions. Sites like booking.com and tripadvisor.com are central resources for travelers (and even locals) looking for restaurants, bars, hotels and more (tripadvisor is now the 190th global site according to their metrics on Alexa, while booking.com ranks 109th).

Ultimately reviews give customers the confidence they need to feel comfortable buying services or products. So clearly they are crucial. But in an increasingly crowded marketplace with bored and dissatisfied customers proliferating, what can we actually do to make reviews better? Some of the steps are fairly straightforward. Here are some ideas.

Ask your customers directly

It might sound incredibly obvious, but the best way to get your customers to leave reviews is to actually go ahead and ask them directly. Follow up emails and automated post-purchase requests are a great way to do this, but it is also good to throw personal details into the reminder and make it memorable. A funny and visually striking prompt email is likely to get a far better response than a short email of boring text.

Keep reviewing your reviews

Sites can quickly get clogged up with spam reviews, while many customers will write reviews that need a speedy response. So it is imperative that you monitor your reviews frequently. And if you see some seriously negative reviews – don’t panic. With great customer care, even dissatisfied customers can be transformed into your most loyal brand ambassadors (provided you respond promptly).

Offer your customers something

Take a minute to think about things from your customer’s perspective; it’s a busy day at the office and they are getting nagged via email to write a review of a product when they just don’t have time. They are probably wondering “what’s in it for me”. First of all, make the process a quick one. Web users are easily bored or frustrated and you certainly don’t want them to give up before they actually publish their thoughts. But simplicity alone isn’t enough. Try offering vouchers, prizes or rewards for customers who complete a review.

Try voice reviews

Most websites use traditional text-based platforms for their reviews. A simple way to improve yours is to introduce a different medium. Text is problematic because it is so ambiguous and impersonal. It is worth trying out voice reviews to let your customers interact with each other in a much more personal way and actually hear each other’s voices as if they were having a conversation, or talking face-to-face.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

Most modern brands communicate in branding channels that combine different elements and mediums. Today it is common to have a mixture of images, text and sound that we associate with a specific brand. When used effectively these three elements can go together smoothly and leave a strong and memorable message. But they can also create a great deal of dissonance when mismatched.

Over the years there have been many studies that seek to show one form of branding is more valuable or more powerful than another. Some favor audio and some visual, but the truth is that each works on a different part of our brain, memory recall and associative thinking, and as elements they are arguably all effective and in different ways, but most effective when presented together as a package.

Finding the right mixture of visual, audio and text elements can be tricky. Since it is a totally different story for each brand, the best way to do it is to start with a great deal of research – both in terms of your target audience and in terms of competitors. Another important thing to consider is user-generated content. At the end of the day brand channels aren’t all equal and what users have to say about a service or product often carries far more weight than what a brand has to say about itself.

Despite the importance of user-generated content, and the importance of marrying different branding mediums, almost all user-generated content remains text based. And while text is sufficient to convey basic success stories, customer dissatisfaction and more, it is far less effective than a combination of mediums.

Brands must begin looking towards mixed medium user-generated content and this means adding the options of visual and audio elements to existing text-based comments and review sections of e-stores, content sites and more. Bringing voice and images to this brand channel has the potential to transform the ways customers appreciate, interact and spread the word about a product or service.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

When it comes to branding, creating the correct tone of voice is critical. Yet despite the fact this phrase includes the words “tone” and “voice”, “tone of voice” generally refers to written brand materials. Within the world of these written brand materials there are of course endless channels from social media, to content campaigns to brand partnerships, launch events and more.

In today’s world, brands have become almost human. For many of the best brands, it is as if they have developed full-blown personalities. And often, when people describe brands they love, it is if they are talking fondly about a good friend of theirs or even a family member. Sometimes people’s love of great brand even seems to stray into the category of worship or religious devotion.

A good brand knows all of this and is constantly thinking about the correct positioning and tone. Just take a look at all the luxury brands that have recently aligned themselves with arts and culture in an attempt to ennoble their brands. The luxury brand outlets themselves often resemble temples, so it is perhaps fitting that they should be throwing in their image and brand values with our modern temples of art and culture.

The strange thing is that within all this talk of tone of voice, the actual and literal meaning of tone of voice is getting lost. The real richness and nuance of a voice can never be fully communicated in even the most sophisticated text-based branding campaigns.

Of course, user-generated content can do a lot to create the correct tone of voice for brands. And in today’s world it is arguably far more effective than other branding channels. And yet – actual voice is also missing here. It seems like a major oversight, and especially in terms of comments and review platforms.

But there has been a recent trend of reclaiming actual voice within the realm of tone of voice, and this is the new generation of voice and comment platforms that actually allow us to hear each other. Bringing audio to brands ads an enormous amount of nuance, personality and richness, and for brands looking to stand out and differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded market, it is the only way to go.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

The rise of online communities has led to an increase in crowdsourcing of all types and possibilities. There was once a time when experts with a list of degrees and published books would be the only ones called in to solve a particular problem or puzzle, but today there is increasingly strength in numbers and increasingly, problems are solved collectively. And while we haven’t fully witnessed the death of ‘the expert’ (and maybe we never will), ‘the crowd’ has nonetheless become a new and important collective expert of its own.

Crowdsourcing is essentially a way of harnessing the wisdom of the crowd, and it can be used to fulfill many purposes. While some of the tasks are relatively mundane, some of the more interesting crowdsourcing efforts include SETI’s attempt to expand the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Ultimately, the wisdom of the crowd is a powerful force that can be harnessed for all things trivial, serious and everything in-between.

And the wisdom of the crowd isn’t only interesting because of its problem-solving potential; it also opens the doors to the game-changing world of big data. Every online community has essentially become a potential harvesting ground for information that can tell a variety of businesses, institutions and more, exactly how their customers or users behave.

Yet the way online communities communicate and gather their wisdom remains relatively limited. Most of the time they communicate through text. And this means that a lot of meaning is lost. However sophisticated an online crowd or community is, it cannot surpass the inbuilt ambiguity of the written language. And while there are some advantages to this – including the feeling of online anonymity – it arguably takes away one of the most important and intimate aspects of person-to-person communication, and that is tone of voice.

Running an online platform or community with a traditional comments and/or reviews section is a great way to harness and build community. It’s also a way to gather statistics and even venture into the realm of big data. And there are plenty of text-based technologies that do this. But without voice something is inherently missing, and these online text-based communities are fundamentally lackluster. Luckily, there is a solution, and it is the new and wonderful creation of voice comments and reviews. This technology allows online communities to have a voice (literally) and to communicate between members almost as they would face-to-face.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

or more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

There are so many ways to communicate in 2016 that it can often be overwhelming. When it comes to marketing, all the offline channels of communication like real printed banner ads, signs, TV ads and more are all still alive and kicking. And of course, so are brand partnerships and brand ambassadors and events and conferences and so much more.

And in the world of digital, the communication channels are also endless – there are content publishing sites, digital ads, social media, campaigns, sponsored posts, promoted content, and the list goes on. Yet in today’s world of marketing, there is one channel of communication that has become increasingly important, and that is relevant to both the online and offline worlds, and that is word of mouth.

Word of mouth marketing or WOM Marketing, or WOMM, is all about creating viral content, buzz, and basically getting users talking. Unlike the more traditional forms of online and offline marketing, WOMM cannot be directly produced or controlled by marketers. Instead it can be influenced and encouraged. It’s really more of an art form than a specific communication channel.

Ultimately, WOMM can make or break businesses. Great customer conversation can spread the word about a product or service as fast as wildfire and certainly in a faster and better way than a digital ad or real world billboard. On the flipside, if a bad dialogue or conversation starts to circulate, businesses can really suffer, and even close down.

So how can businesses harness the powerful force of WOMM? Today, there are many media and marketing agencies that specialize in WOMM and offer advice and tactics on how to “influence” or “manage” the way your customers talk and interact about your business. This can include teaser campaigns, WOMM agents, friend recommendation schemes and so much more.

While offline WOMM consists largely of actual conversations, often between friends and colleagues, online, WOMM comes in different formats. It is frequently made up of the comment and reviews sections on websites and social media. And unfortunately, unlike the real world conversations where people have face-to-face interactions about their thoughts and opinions, the online interactions are seriously limiting. For starters they are almost exclusively text based – an ambiguous medium at the best of times, which makes tone of voice impossible to understand. And even if you add a gif or video to what you are saying, there is still a lot that can get lost in translation.

Luckily there is a solution, and it is the new wave of voice comments and reviews. Providing WOMM the ability to exist through voice and not just text can significantly improve user-generated content, user interactions and users perceptions of brands. Ultimately, hearing someone else’s voice is just a far more personal and meaningful way to interact and this is another way to positively influence your WOMM campaigns.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

The way brands advertise, communicate and interact with customers has changed and evolved dramatically over the past few decades. Just think back to the 50s or 60s when brands communicated almost exclusively through ads on TVs and classic products had strong brand ambassadors – just think of the iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe holding a Chanel No. 5 bottle.

With digital, a lot of how brands communicated themselves moved online into banner ads, retargeting campaigns and everyone possible form of sponsored digital media. But the most dramatic change in branding happened when social media started to take off.

Social media meant that brands were no longer the seamless faces, ads and banners of the products and services that we knew and loved, instead they became conversation and interaction orientated. With the rise of social media, the user really began to take over in all aspects of advertising. And at a certain point, the user-generated content became even more important than what brands had to say about themselves.

Generation Y is one in which people are always looking to the wisdom of the crowd. When it comes to products and services, people are inundated with endless options and the consequence of this is that they have become increasingly skeptical. Hearing a brand tell you it is great via ads (whether online or offline) just isn’t really convincing anymore. But other users opinions are.

Comments and conversations are also crucial because they keep users and customers coming back. However good a story or photo generated by a brand is, it is ultimately static. What is really interesting is the way that brand-generated content can spark lively user debates, conversations and interactions.

And then there is a question of medium. The problem with the online world is that so much of it is limited to text. Text is fundamentally ambiguous and loses all the “personal touch” of face-to-face communications. And even if you pair your text with great photos, a critical element of communication is still lacking. And while virtual reality looks promising, we all know it will be a while before we can use it to communicate properly.

So what’s the solution? Voice is one of the best channels to generate user content today. With it, users can hear each other and interact almost as they would face-to-face. Voice brings back all the nuances of tone and with high levels of voice authentication software; it is also a great way to weed out annoying bots and spammers. To make your brand really stand out in a world full of great brands and skeptical users, voice can give you competitive edge.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.

When it comes to brand, service or product marketing, one of the strongest channels in our increasingly skeptical digital age is that of personal recommendations. In the end, all the perfectly crafted ads, PR campaigns, events and whatever else will never be as powerful as a potential customer hearing a recommendation from a friend, a family member, or someone they truly trust. In recent years, word of mouth has overtaken many traditional advertising channels and become one of the best ways to market a service or product.

But when it comes to word of mouth, something interesting has happened. Face-to-face recommendations have partly migrated to the online world, and online comments and reviews have become a powerful and influential digital currency. From recent studies, it has been shown that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. When it comes to trying out a new product or service, the first thing users will do is look at what other users have to say.

Online reviews and comments are wonderful because they provide users with information about the products and services they are interested in, and provide them with information and opinions regarding news articles, popular stories and current affairs. Reviews and comments can also create trust, and influence the way potential customers perceive brands. If a restaurant or hotel receives too few stars or good reviews it is likely many potential customers will feel that the brand isn’t trustworthy. A basic level of positive reviews brings credibility to businesses in the online age.

According to the numbers, it is clear that the influencing power of reviews and comments has been rising dramatically. Just looking at the statistics from BrightLocal, we can see that each year more and more customers are turning to online reviews to determine whether or not a local business is a good business, and this is a trend that will likely continue to rise dramatically in the coming years.

And while the importance of online reviews and comments is clear, there is still one major issue: text is a limited way of communicating opinions about online businesses and services. The problem is that when you write your opinion in text form, so much can be lost in translation or misinterpreted. When we interact face-to-face, tone of voice is a huge part of the way we communicate and understand. All of this is lost in text based comments and review platforms.

Fortunately, there is a solution, and it is the new wave of voice technology. Word of mouth may have migrated online, but engaging through the medium of voice brings back the personal feeling of face-to-face interactions and recommendations. You might not be able to see the person who is recommending you a restaurant, but you can hear their tone of voice. And while it’s still early days for voice comments and reviews, research has already shown that users rate sites and products more favorably if they feature audio testimonials rather than standard text testimonials.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya for free today, click here.